For most viewers, cult director John Waters' movies are synonymous with transvestism, “bad taste” humor, and toxic American kitsch. But the Baltimore auteur has explored various political, sociological, and psychological themes in his movies over the course of his half-century career (his first...

1999 is considered one of the strongest years of cinema in living memory. There will no doubt be countless articles in 2019 marking the 20th anniversaries of that year's greatest hits and examining their impact and legacy.
But this column isn’t about those movies. This column is about the...

The usual disclaimers apply: I didn't see every movie, I'm an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about, etc. I note that four of the 10 were directed by women, and nine of them were "festival movies," premiering at Toronto, Sundance, or Telluride. There were a lot of excellent movies in 2018,...

The final moments of Wildlife and A Star is Born involve an acknowledgment of the camera. In Wildlife, that moment is an arranged family photo that pays tribute to a non-existent family. In A Star Is Born, it’s a moment of grief and star-making, one in which something old is destroyed so that...

Based on my own research. Films included only if they played theatrically. Corrections and additions are welcome (@ me). For comparison's sake, here's the 2017 edition.
Total wide releases (600+ theaters):
160
Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and...

Jason Reitman is never as good as when he’s collaborating with screenwriter Diablo Cody; bonus points if the film in question stars Charlize Theron, as Tully does. This unexpectedly searing film alternates between tender drama and psychological terror, plumbing the depths of an exhausted...

If you’ve heard anything about Xavier Legrand’s Custody — admittedly, it’s possible you haven’t — it’s likely writer/director Xavier Legrand's elevator pitch that his film “starts like Kramer vs. Kramer and ends like The Shining.” The logline can be taken quite literally, as the...

Probably because I was one myself once, I have little tolerance for movies that center on chest-thumping, self-pitying suburban teen boys. Meanwhile, I outright despise the glut of ’80s nostalgia that’s pervaded cinema and television for what seems like the last 20 years. It was therefore with...

The Commuter, Jaume Collet-Serra’s fourth collaboration with Liam Neeson, is a two-fisted Hitchcock riff with enough personality, humor, and righteous anger to stand out from the current crop of old-man action movies. While it may retread much of the same ground as the duo’s earlier Non-Stop...

The filmmaking duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have consistently proven they know how to work within budget limitations to produce subtly chilling sci-fi/horror films that don’t rely on excessive gore or jump scares to get under an audience’s skin. This is especially true of The...

Three Identical Strangers is not an airplane movie. I didn’t know that when I swiped past Rampage, Blockers and the one where Melissa McCarthy goes to college. By the time the plane landed, the seatback screen reset to stock footage of a pleasant-looking steward, and I got lost in the...

Writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has proven to be a master of dread-filled horror with films like Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001), and in 2008 he stretched his creative legs to deliver the beautifully affecting family drama Tokyo Sonata. He shifted gears again this year to deliver an alien invasion...

It's a weird truth that for an activity that's over 150 years old, there are fewer than 10 movies about the only damn sport I care about, tennis. There are even fewer good ones, but this year, finally, we got a truly great one. Borg vs. McEnroe shifts effortlessly between the first Wimbledon...

Andrea Riseborough did some terrific work in 2018, but my pick for her finest role is the title character in Nancy, an impressive indie debut from Christina Choe. Nancy has a lonely life as the sole caregiver for her ill mother (Ann Dowd). She works as a temp, spinning stories to her coworkers...

Marc Turtletaub’s Puzzle is much like the game itself — quiet, and engrossing. Kelly Macdonald has long been one of our finest yet underrated actresses, always bringing an acute sensitivity to her roles, and she is pitch perfect as Agnes, a mousy, demure Christian housewife with a velvety voice...